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CANOPY MAGAZINE FALL 2012
Losing Cape Cod Saving Cape Cod TOM STONE
W
e live in a time when human actions are the dominant force on the planet. Of particular concern is the increased use of fossil fuels and the resulting climatic destabilization due to warming, sea level rise, droughts, and a greater frequency of storms. Although much of WHRC’s research is focused on the wide-ranging, global impacts of these threats, we also study their impact on Cape Cod. With a population of 225,000 spread across 400 square miles, Cape Cod has a unique geographic identity that lends itself to a study of Cape-wide energy budgets, trends in land use, and risks of climate change. Using the most recent data available (2005), WHRC has developed the new Losing Cape Cod - Saving Cape Cod map, portraying some dramatic trends that have occurred since the 1950s. During this period, the combined acreage of forest, cropland, pastures, cranberry bogs, and
1951
open land was reduced by nearly 50%. In the same 54-year period, residential and commercial acreage increased by 228%. Although development has slowed somewhat in recent years, the Cape will have to deal with traffic and wastewater consequences of this building boom for decades. And, because of this rapid growth, one particular effect of climate change - sea level rise - will become even more of a challenge.
rise – caused by melting of the world’s glaciers and ice caps and by expansion of ocean water as it warms. The shores of Cape Cod are part of an area recently designated as a “hotspot” of sea level rise, where scientists have found that over the past 20 years, sea levels have risen three to four times faster than the global average.
Climate change is more than global warming. Warming increases rates of evaporation, adding more warm moisture to the air - the fuel for stronger storms. Warming is also accompanied by sea level
2005